Not Quite Possible
by NoDrogs
Summary: Kim's cousin, Joss Possible, discovers a family secret when the Bebes kidnaps her father. She needs to save him, but she'll need Sari Sumdac's help in learning to cope with being more than meets the eye
1. Chapter 1

Not Quite Possible

by: NoDrog(s)

Chapter 1: A father lost, Secrets found

This is based on a challenge on the KP Slash Haven board suggested by Sobriety. Special thanks to Love Robin and others on the board for suggestions. Joss Possible and associated characters are from the Disney series 'Kim Possible' and used for non-profit purposes without permission. Sari Sumdac and associated characters are from Transformers Animated. Characters used without permission for non profit reasons.

Time period: After Kim's graduation, but the Lorwardian Invasion never happened. Also, none of the events of Terminator 3 or the Sarah Conner chronicles happened (or, at least, are not referred to in this story).

Joss stepped out of the shower and took a moment to admire herself in the mirror. At 14 she was just starting to become a woman. Her skin was heavily tanned, but there was no scars or blemishes. Some of the ranch owners she met joked she had a charmed life... She lived a very active life, doing things that was dangerous even for a grown man, but had never had a broken bone or even needed stitches. She was just getting dressed when she heard noise coming from her father's office.. it sounded as if he was arguing with someone. She pulled on her shirt, then heard the sound of something breaking. Really worried now, she ignored her boots and dashed out of her bathroom.

Two women had her father penned against a wall. A third one was working at a safe. That is, they were women in shape; however, their 'skin' was polished blue metal, and Joss could see obvious mechanical joints.

Slim saw his daughter before the androids holding him saw her. "Joss, run!" he ordered, his voice more hoarse and desperate then Joss had ever heard before.

The robot woman trying to open the safe turned to look at Joss. She stepped away from the safe and began walking toward Joss, her finger tips transforming into talons. "You will not stop us." she said. "The Bebes must become perfect.".

Joss was more frightened.... and angry... then she had ever been in her life. She had always thought 'seeing red' was an expression, but now it was literally true for her... everything was taking on a reddish tinge. However, instead of obscuring her view, she could see things more clearly and more detailed. Words flashed in front of her eyes, memories of studying her cousin Kim's adventures. The robots were called Bebes; created by Dr. Drakken, they had rebelled. They were capable of moving at super speed, but lacked any weaponry except their own hands and feet.

What Joss did not see, but Slim Possible and the Bebes did see, was that Joss was changing. Her body elongated, 'skin' splitting along hidden seems to allow more cooling of internal servomechanisms. A dull gray liquid flowed down through the new openings, covering her skin and the torn remnants of her clothes. More goo flowed upward, forming a helmet that covered her head. A face plate formed, with a dark red visor over her eyes and a white plate covering her nose and mouth. From hidden internal cavities in her left and right thighs weapons deployed; a silver metal pistol on the right thigh, and a 'rope' made of metal links on her left thigh.

Joss reached down, somehow knowing that the gun would be there. She drew it out and aimed it at the Bebe coming toward her. Even though she had never seen the gun before, it felt like a natural extension of her arm. The Bebe vibrated, preparing to switch to super speed. Joss coldly fired three shots, the pistol firing so fast that it sounded like a single shot. Three holes formed in the Bebe's head: One hole in each eye socket, and the third through her forehead.

Watching their leader collapse, the two Bebes holding Slim looked at each other. "We have the creator." the one on the left said.

"We do not need the creations." agreed the one on the right.

The two blurred and then set off running, carrying Slim prisoner between them through the exterior door behind them. Joss set off in pursuit, running at a speed no unaugmented human could match. However, she was still not as fast as the Bebes, and their movements were erratic enough that shooting would have risked hitting her father. She chased them untill she could no longer see them, firing warning shots to try to deter them. Finally, she stopped and returned the Auto-6 pistol to the thigh holster and felt both pistol and lasso returning to their internal storage bays. With the need for combat fading, her limbs returned to their default configuration and the helmet and face plate melted away.

Joss looked down at herself. From the neck down, she seemed to be wearing some sort of dull mylar jumpsuit. She turned and looked at how far she'd run from her family's ranch, without being tired or even out of breath. She then spoke the three words that seemed to perfectly sum up her situation. "What the hell?"

* * *

Joss was actually closer to the general store then she was to the ranch; she began walking, her thoughts confused. She had no idea how to explain the changes that had overcome her; she had been taller and faster then she normally was. Plus, there had that weird red enhanced vision mode, or those weapons that had mysteriously appeared and then disapeared. Weapons she knew were called an Auto-6 and a smart rope, and knew exactly what each weapon could do and how to use it. "What's going on?" she asked aloud. "It's lahk ah'm living an episode of Cap'n Constellation."

She picked up the pay phone handset and then began patting down her new outfit. While the outfit looked like something Nine of Seven from Space Passage might wear on , it lacked any pockets. She was just about to try placing a collect call when she found herself suddenly making a series of high pitched tones. There was a click on the line, and then she heard the other end of the line ringing.

She heard her uncle answer. "Hello, Possible Residence... This is Dr. James Possible speaking."

"Uncle James, this is Joss." said Joss. "Two of those Bebes just kidnapped my dad, and... some really strange stuff happened to me when Ah went to chase 'em down."

"What sort of strange stuff?" asked James, his voice cautious.

"Ah had some fancy shooting iron and this metal rope, and Ah'm wearing this gray suit now..." said Joss, then realized she was babbling. "What's going on?"

"This is something we should really discuss face to face, as a family." said James. "Go back home and get packed, but be careful in case the Bebes show up again. I'll be there in a couple of hours."

"Right." said Joss

* * *

Joss walked back home, worried about her father and wandering what had happened to her. She had dumped out her book-bag and had packed it full of clothes when she realized she was still wearing the gray cat suit. She examined it, but there was no obvious zippers or closures on the suit. "Well, how do ah get rid of you?" she asked rhetorically.

The suit shimmered, turning back into liquid goo form, and then seemed to melt away, being reabsorbed into her skin. Joss stared at her now naked body. "Well, ah guess that makes as much sense as anything." she said aloud, and quickly got dressed She started packing a duffle bag and was almost finished when she heard the sound of high pitched jet engines coming from the back yard.

She hurried out to see a small, futuristic looking jet plane descend vertically on the yard. Once safely on the ground, the engines turned off and the tinted canopy slid forward, revealing her uncle at the controls. The side of the canopy opened into a set of steps which Dr. James Possible began climbing down.

"Unca' James!" Joss said, running excitedly to him. Dr. Possible reached out and hugged his niece.

"It's ok, I'm here." he said reassuringly. "We'll get your father back. Now, first things first... have you eaten recently?"

Joss realized that she had not and that she was, in fact, ferociously hungry. She took comfort in the sheer normalcy of that fact. "No... Ah'll go fix us some San'whiches."

"Good girl." said James. "I've got to go use the facilities, and then we can eat."

* * *

While her uncle went to the bathroom, Joss went to the kitchen and fixed two large sandwiches and opened a large bag of chips. Normally she wouldn't have eaten so much; her friends at school sometimes thought she was dieting or a picky eater, but the truth was she didn't seem to need as much food as they did. Now, though, she was famished. As soon as Uncle James sat down at the table with her, she began wolfing through her sandwich, alternating it with mouthfuls of potato chips.

James cut his sandwich in half and, as soon as Joss finished her own sandwich, handed the half he wasn't eating across the table. "You probably burned a lot of calories in Combat Mode, especially chasing after the Bebes." he said.

Joss picked up the sandwich half, but stared at her uncle rather then tearing into it. "Combat Mode? What's going on, Unca'?"

"That's something I rather you heard from your father." said James.

"Well in case yuh didn't notice, the Bebes took him!" Joss said. Her lower lip trembled and she could feel tears forming in her eyes. Angrily she wiped the tears away.

"I know..." said James. He reached into a pocket of the jacket he was wearing and took a DVD, in a plastic CD case, from his pocket. "But I stopped by my house before I left Middleton, and picked up something your father had prepared for emergencies."

Joss carried the sandwich half and the DVD into the TV room. After loading the DVD into the player, she sat back to watch.

On the TV Screen, an image of her father appeared. It flickered slightly, as if the original footage had been recorded on some other media and then later transferred to DVD.

Joss once again felt tears come to her eyes and this time she let them flow down her emotionally shocked face as she watched her father speak.

"Joss, I sincerely hope that I find a better way to tell you than this tape." said Seamus 'Slim' Possible. "In case something happens to me before I can, however, I am making this recording and leaving it with my brother for safe keeping. I want you to remember two things.". He stared directly at the camera, as if he could somehow see Joss watching it. "You are my daughter. And I will always love you."

Slim waited a moment and then resumed speaking. "When you have asked me about your mother, I lied and said that she died when you were too young to remember her, and that her death was too painful for me to keep any photos of her. The truth is much different. Mentally and emotionally, you are human. If there is such a thing as a soul, you possess one. But you were not 'born' in a conventional sense. Biologically, however, you are something different. Your bones are made of threaded together carbon tubes. Your muscles are electrostatic actuators. Your skin is a mesh of polymers and sensors. And your brain is a collection of self-organizing neural networking heuristic circuitry, located about here."

Slim tapped his chest.

"Here, where normal humans keep their heart. You are a synthetic sentient being. Not artificial. Just... different. I know this will be hard on you. Your uncle James... and he is your uncle, just as you are my daughter... has additional information and recordings. Whether you watch them or not is up to you. Just let me repeat this. I love you; and you will always be my daughter."

The image faded to lack as Joss stared at the screen, tears flowing down her face.

James came in a few minutes later. Silently, he sat down next to Joss and held her in his arms, letting her finish crying. "What am ah?" Joss asked.

"Slim's daughter." said James. "My niece, who I love. One who just happens to also be an android."

"Oh gawd... is that why the Bebes came? For me?" asked Joss, struck by a horrid thought.

"No." said James, firmly. "If they had come for you, they would have taken you. They wanted your father; he recently published an article on advanced animatronic robotics; it's probably why they came looking for him."

"How... How was I created?" asked Joss.

James took a deep breath. "I left the other DVDs at home, but.. about ten years ago, your uncle was working for Omni Consumer Products. He and several others were working on creating humanoid prosthetics. They had created major breakthroughs in creating artificial skin and musculature that looked and responded like human flesh. They were stuck, however, on handling the massive amounts of information processing such realistic prosthetics required. He spoke with a friend of his, Miles Dyson. Miles worked for a competing company, Cyberdyne. Their friendship was a closely kept secret; both companies were fiercely competitive of each other. Miles revealed Cyberdyne was working on humanoid robotics and computers, from the inside out. He also revealed that somehow Cyberdyne had gotten a jump start. A robot arm and processor chip, decades if not centuries ahead of what everyone else had. Anne... your aunt... was part of the OCP project as a medical advisor. The three of them... Slim, Anne, and Miles... worked together to create... well, you. Instead of duplicating the chip, like Miles's company wanted, they created a synthetic brain, a synthetic mind on par with any organic brain. Miles and Slim created your body, incorporating a wide variety of elements. Nanoprobes from N-Tek. Motors and additional processor chips from Sumdak. I don't have it all memorized."

"Did you help 'build' me?" asked Joss.

James hesitated. "Not... in creating your basic body, no."

"Basic body?" asked Joss.

James sighed. "A lot of what OCP and Cyberdyne were working on were meant as military weapons. Even the prosthetics were aimed at helping combat-injured soldiers keep fighting. Slim knew you might be seen as a target, something to be used against your will. To protect yourself, you have a 'combat' mode. There are also additional systems that Slim later built, designed to be incorporated into your body on a temporary basis if you ever needed them. One of those systems is a flight pack, complete with rocket engines for your legs, that I helped build."

"Where are they?"

* * *

James insisted on opening and taking the contents of Slim's safe first, for safe keeping. Carrying the various disks and papers inside a duffle bag, James led the way into the stables where Tornado, Slim's robo-horse, snickered defiantly. "You'll need to get him out of the stall." James said.

"Easy, boy..." said Joss, leading Tornado out. She had always had a way with the robot horses, even when normal horses and dogs were nervous around her. Now she knew why; her insides had more in common with Tornado then they did with James.

Once the robot horse was out of the way, James swept the hay and dirt up, revealing a large metal panel set into the floor. A smaller panel next to it opened up to reveal a hand sensor. When James pressed his hand to it, the larger panel hinged upwards, revealing a hidden storage space containing a large, black suitcase. James reached inside and opened the suit case, revealing several components nestled inside it. Nestled against the top of the case, held in place by loops of fabric were magazines of custom made 6 MM ammunition.

Joss reached for one of the magazines, picking it up, then hesitated. "Um, Uncle James... could you look away?"

James obediently turned around. Joss pulled her jeans down to her knees. Her right thigh split open along the hidden seems and the holster emerged, pistol resting comfortably inside it. When her thigh closed up, it looked as if someone had somehow glued a skeletal metal holster to the side of an ordinary person's leg, the sleek gleaming weapon looking out of place between her white and pink jockey shorts and her denim jeans. She took the pistol and ejected the half expended magazine, sliding the replacement magazine into the handle of the gun. She gave the butt of the gun a firm slap to make sure the magazine was firmly in place, then returned the pistol to its holster. The holster retracted back into her upper leg, allowing Joss to pull her jeans back up.

James grabbed the heavy case, having to sling the duffle bag he brought over one shoulder so he could use two hands to lift the case out of its hiding space. Once it was outside of the stall, James and Joss got Tornado back in place and left, Joss easily carrying the case one handed. With her uncle's help, they soon had the case, Joss's two bags of clothes, and the duffle back of her father's research loaded into the jet.

"Anything else before we go?" James asked.

"Yeah..." said Joss, embarrassed. "I have to go pee. Wait... Why DO I have to go pee?"

"You were made to be as human as... well, possible." said James Possible. "You could have been made to run on plutonium or need to plug in to recharge. Instead, your body breaks down and processes organic substances... food... for power and raw materials, just like ordinary humans. As a result, you have to use the bathroom just like I do."

Once in the plane, the over 500 mile distance between Slim's ranch and Middleton was covered in less then an hour. Joss came into her Uncle and Aunt's home to find Aunt Anne waiting for her. The red haired woman hugged Joss to her, tenderly. "Oh, Joss... don't worry, we'll get your father back."

"Thanks." Joss said. She looked up at the brain surgeon, a plaintive expression on her face. Her accent thickened with nervousness as she asked "So, um... cain ah call you Mom?'

"Oh, honey..." said Anne, looking down at Joss tenderly. "You can call me whatever you want."

"What happened to the other guy who built me? Um, Miles."

"Miles Dyson?" asked Anne. "He died just before you were first turned on. He was either kidnapped or went willingly with a terrorist family called the Conners... his widow as a little vague on the details... and he died in a bomb that destroyed a lot of the Cyberdyne research, including the processing chip you were based on. Cyberdyne somehow either managed to save the arm or find a replacement arm. Anyway, that's when your father moved to Montana, set up his ranch, and started raising you. If Cyberdyne knew about you, they would stop at nothing to get you back. Also, the Conners were never captured."

Joss nodded in understanding.

"I spoke with Kim." said Anne. "She said she would come pack immediately, but I told her to stay in Paris. We have no idea where the Bebes took Seamus, and until we do it's silly for her to interrupt her College studies. Wade is doing his best to find any reference to them, but we didn't even suspect that any of the Bebes were still around. He's having to start almost from scratch."

"All we can do now is wait." said James.

"Ah hate waiting." said Joss. "Who knows wha' 'orrible thangs they could be doin' to mah father?"

* * *

Slim Possible tugged on the faux-fur lined straps that held him securely to the bed. He was naked, except for a metal headband linked to the headboard by a white cable. A Bebe, looking identical to the two that brought him her, slinked into the room. She moved in what was almost a parody of a female walk, her hips swaying back and forth. "Come on, doctor..." she said, her voice in what was obviously meant to be a seductive, husky purr. "Why don't you tell us everything about your work in robotics... and about that girl you call daughter."

"I won't tell you anything!" Slim said, trying to find some way to get the headband off. It stuck securely, apparently glued on.

"In time, we WILL know your secrets." the Bebe said. "Bebes WILL be perfect. But it would go sooo much faster if you just told us."

"Never!" vowed Slim. "Never, you robotic nut-jobs!"


	2. Chapter 2

Not Quite Possible

by: NoDrog(s)

Chapter 2: A day in the life

Joss stirred, waking up at the sound of someone knocking on the bedroom door. At first she hoped yesterday had been some bizarre nightmare, brought on by staying up and watching old sci-fi movies with her dad. When she opened her eyes, she realized she wasn't back home… even with most of the personal items removed, she still recognized the room she was sleeping in as her cousin Kim's old bedroom.

Her reaction last evening had certainly been human enough; once she was sure she was 'safe' with her uncle and aunt, she had found herself exhausted and fallen asleep almost immediately. Her aunt/mother Anne had apparently undressed her after putting her to bed; Joss found herself dressed only in jockey shorts and training bra.

The knock was repeated at the door. This time Anne spoke. "Joss? We're having breakfast in about forty-five minutes… Shower and get dressed."

Joss climbed out of the bed, trying to make sense of her memories of yesterday. She unzipped the backpack she had brought, grabbed clean clothes, and ducked into the private bathroom Kim had.

The bathroom had a full length mirror. As soon as Joss saw it, she placed her clean clothes on the counter and stripped down to examine her naked body. She looked the same as she had yesterday morning… She ran her fingers over her arms and thighs, looking for the seams that had opened up yesterday, but there was no sign of them. Her skin felt warm and soft, over firm muscles from working on a ranch. Perhaps there was some other reason she was at her uncle and aunt's house, and yesterday had been some sort of bizarre dream?

"I must be going crazy," Joss muttered. She turned from the mirror, her thighs splitting open temporarily to allow her holsters to emerge. She took the Smart Rope and Auto-6 out, laying them on the counter so they couldn't get wet. She froze, staring down at the weapons she had just sat down. She whirled to look back at the mirror, seeing the holsters on her legs. As she watched, her thighs split open again and the now empty holsters retracted back inside her body.

"Ok… Ah am definitely gone loonier than a tin horn with sun stroke," muttered Joss. She ran her hands over the smooth skin of her thighs, searching for seams. "This ain't happening… it ain't happening… ." She stepped away from the weapons. "Ok… Ah'm going to shower, and when I get out, they ain't goin' to be heah."

Joss showered quickly and stepped out. She tried to ignore the corner where the metal rope and pistol rested, getting dressed in clean underwear, plaid shirt, and denim shorts. Only when she was done did she turn back to look at the counter. The rope and gun were still there.

Gingerly, she picked up the pistol. It certainly felt real enough. Yesterday, it had seemed like an extension of herself… she had effortlessly known exactly where each bullet would go when she had pulled the trigger. Now, it just seemed like any other weapon, although of a somewhat futuristic design. Studying it, she realized there seemed to be no safety switch. She ejected the magazine and unchambered the round still in the pistol to make sure the gun wouldn't accidentally go off. She tried pulling the trigger, but the trigger seemed to be frozen in place.

She placed the ejected bullet back in the magazine and then left the magazine and pistol on the counter. The thought of carrying a loaded weapon inside of her leg, even if it might have been there for years, seemed needlessly dangerous. The metal rope seemed innocuous enough, so she cautiously picked it up. When she hiked the left leg of the shorts up, her thigh split open and the smart rope holster emerged. When the rope remained limp, acting like ordinary rope, she coiled the rope up and placed it back into the left holster. She watched the holster and smart rope retract back into her leg and then her thigh sealed close; only when the smart rope was no longer visible did she realize that the holster had been bone dry; apparently, she could have left the weapons in place during showering.

"Thas is nuts," Joss muttered. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. "Ah'm human, Ah am."

A knock at the bedroom door caused Joss to turn in panic. "Joss? Are you ok?" Anne asked through the bedroom door.

"Ah'm fine!" lied Joss. She grabbed the Auto-6 and magazine and dropped them into the dirty clothes hamper, then threw the underwear she'd been wearing last night and her wet towel in over them. She hurried through Kim's bedroom and opened up the bedroom door. "Is breakfast ready? Ah'm starved."

"Yes, go on downstairs." Anne said.

Joss scampered down the stairs, wanting to get far as possible from the pistol and its grim reminder of the events of yesterday, trying desperately to act normal.

Jim and Tim were already eating, while Dr. James Possible was sitting at the head of the table. He had the newspaper, but he wasn't reading it. He waited till Joss sat down, then began talking. "I told Jim and Tim that Uncle Slim was kidnapped by the Bebes. I don't think they need to know any other details." He ignored the disappointed looks on his sons' faces.

Joss nodded, picking up her silverware. She ate sporadically, shoveling in a new mouthful whenever Jim or Tim seemed about to ask her something. Realizing that Joss didn't want to speak, the boys tactfully just picked up their book bags and left for school. Joss was home schooled, so fortunately she didn't have to worry about missing school work.

Anne, having eaten earlier, came into the room and sat down at the table. She looked at Joss. "Joss, we need to talk."

"About my dad?" Joss asked.

"About him… and about you," said Anne. She set the Auto-6 and the magazine down on the table. "He loves you. He gave you this so you could protect yourself."

Joss stared at the gun, making no move to pick it up. "Is it true?" she asked.

"What I told you is true." said James. "What your dad told you on that DVD is true. You're a… ."

"Stop it! If what Ah saw on that tape is true, then Ah ain't his daughter! Ah ain't even real!" Joss cried out.

Anne reached out and slapped Joss, smacking hard enough to shock the pre-teen into silence. "Did you feel that?" Anne demanded.

"Y-yes," said Joss, rubbing the side of her face to ease the sting.

"Then you're real," Anne said firmly. "You're as real as anyone. You just started life out a little differently. And Seamus Possible is, in almost every sense I can think of, your father. And we are going to get him back."

Joss stared at Anne. "How ken you say that?"

"I'm a brain surgeon," said Anne. "I know as much as any human on this planet does about human brains and I know about yours. Yours is silicon where mine is organic, but you grew as a child, learned as a child, and I know from what your father told me, you were developing into a human woman I could be proud to call niece or daughter. The only thing that has changed is you know a bit more about yourself now."

There was a tense moment of silence, as both Joss and Anne waited for the other to speak. Finally, James decided to break the silence. "Would you like to know more?" he gently asked Joss.

Joss and Anne followed as James led them to his study. Once there, James revealed a hidden safe built into the wall and opened it. Inside, there were a stack of hand labeled CD jewel cases. Instead of taking one of the DVDs out, as Joss expected, he took them all from the safe and handed them to Joss. "These are yours," he said. "It's up to you what you do with them… but they represent information your dad wanted you to have, and information you might need to face the Bebes."

"Thank you," Joss said.

"We'll be in the kitchen when you're ready to talk," Anne said. She took James by the hand and led him out of the study.

Joss took the DVDs and walked over to the lounge. She picked one of the DVDs at random and placed it in the player.

An image of her father, several years younger, appeared. "Joss, if you're watching this, you must want to know more about your creation. Your physical appearance was a high priority in your design, to help you fit in with organic humans. To make your skin, we used everything from nano-thread sensors, electro-static micro-actuators, multiple types of plastic polymers, and even cosmetic products. The following products went into the outer most layer of your skin."

James and Anne set in the kitchen, pretending they couldn't hear the sound of Joss crying as she watched the DVDs. Anne flipped through the latest issue of _Journal of Neuro-Science_ while James looked through the newspaper, neither of them actually retaining anything they read. It was after One in the afternoon when Joss finally came out of the TV room. Neither of the two adults spoke, just watched warily as Joss picked up the Auto-6. The holster deployed from her right thigh as she picked up the magazine of ammunition and slipped it into place. Both James and Anne gave a silent sigh of relief as Joss didn't try to use the gun, just placed the pistol into its holster and allowed it to retract into her leg.

"One of the DVDs said the Auto-6 won't fire unless Ah'm in combat mode or in tahget practice mode, but didn't say how to trigger those modes," Joss said.

"Combat mode automatically triggers when you are under stress," said James. "Basically, whenever you believe that you or a loved one is in immediate danger. Target Practice mode requires a code word to activate. There is a code to give you voluntary control of both modes, but only Slim knows what it is; he was planning to give you the code when he told you when you turned eighteen."

Joss chewed her lower lip, then spoke. "When y'all find where these Bebes are keeping my father, Ah wanna be there to help get him safe."

James nodded; his experience with Kim had shown him there was no point in arguing with a teenage Possible on certain subjects.

Joss turned to look at Anne. "Yuh were right," she said. "Watching those DVDs… He really does think of himself as muh father."

"Of course he does, Joss," said Anne.

"Well, if Ahm going to be of help, Ah reckon I need some practice with this fancy shootin' iron," said Joss, patting her right thigh.

"All right," said James. "The Rocket Center has a shooting range; we can get lunch, then I can get the range cleared for us."

Lunch was just drive-thru; Joss ate her hamburger in silence. Once at the range, Joss and James carried the case of special equipment into the firing range. James got ear-protectors for both of them, then locked the firing range door. Joss got out her Auto-6.

James opened the case, taking out the second Auto-6 and laying out several different ammo magazines. "The Auto-6 automatically adapts to six different calibers, you might as well practice with all six of them," James said in explanation. He picked up one of the magazines and slapped it into the second Auto-6, then handed the weapon to Joss.

Joss stood at the line of the firing range. She pointed both pistols at a target and squeezed, but neither trigger moved. "How do I activate target practice mode?" she asked.

"Snacker-Snick," said James.

Joss felt a moment of distortion, then realized she was mentally seeing two points of focus, instead of the normal single point. When she moved the two Auto-6s, she discovered she could track independently where each pistol would hit. The shooting range had six lines, each with a paper target hanging down in the lane. She fired, hitting the two most outward bull's-eyes perfectly. "Two gun mojo," she said, dragging the term up from an action movie she'd seen. "Cool." She turned sideways, holding the pistols extended down-range. She found herself able to watch both left and right at once, using what was normally peripheral vision. She was puzzled at what she was seeing appearing flat, then realized her eyes were pointing in two different directions; instead of her brain processing a stereo image, she was dealing with two two-dimensional images.

She set one of the Auto-6 pistols down and changed magazines, trying a higher caliber magazine. It held fewer bullets, but each bullet would hit with more force. She took aim, finding herself automatically compensating for the heavier recoil.

She had gone through a full magazine of each caliber type when James called a halt to the firing practice. "We need to go now so I can pick up the boys. We can come back another day if you want to practice some more, but I think tomorrow you should work with your Smart Rope."

"Ok," said Joss, feeling better. She put the second Auto-6 back in the case, then loaded a fresh clip of ammo into her Auto-6 and put it away in her leg. "You can go ahead and say whatever it is that switches off target shooting mode."

"Don't worry about it," James said. "Just be aware you'll automaticly be logged out of target shooting mode the next time you sleep. "

"Thanks, Unca' James," said Joss. She carried the case out to the car. On the way to Middleton High, she asked a question that had been bothering her all day. "What… what do yah think the Bebes are doin' to dad? Are they torch'ring him?"

"No, I'm sure they're not," James said. "The Bebes wouldn't use torture just to be sadistic, and they have other ways to get information. They have neural scanning and data retrieval technology."

"They have what?" asked Joss.

"They have a brain tap machine," said James. He rubbed his head, remembering his own experience with such a device. "The process is painless; the only side effect is it leaves the subject temporarily disorientated, with no memories of the event."

"I hope you're right," said Joss.

"The boys… don't know about you being… I mean…," James hesitated, not sure how to say what he wanted to say.

"Yah haven' told 'em Ah'm 'synthetic'," said Joss, with a wry smile. "Ah figured, when they didn' ask to poke aroun' in me this morning'."

James nodded. "If you don't mind, I'd rather we didn't tell them… at least not till we can discuss it with Slim also. The Bebes aren't the only ones who could be a threat to you, and the boys aren't the best people in the world to keep something like this secret."

"Ok," said Joss, grateful for the excuse. She was still having trouble adjusting to the idea; she didn't want to have to deal right now with Jim and Tim adjusting to it also.

Dinner went by normally; the only break in routine being when James called Wade and Wade reported that, unfortunately, he had no news to report about Slim and the Bebes. Joss sighed in disappointment. Seeking some way to distract her, Anne spoke up. "Tomorrow is family movie night; we usually let the boys pick out a movie to watch, but as you're our special guest, is there one you would like to see?"

"Ah don't really have a preference," Joss said with a shrug.

"Oh, how about Not Quite Human?" suggested Tim.

James and Anne exchanged a worried glance.

"Now, Tim…," said Anne. "We saw that movie last week."

"Not Quite Human 2?" suggested Jim.

Before James or Anne could protest, Joss spoke up. "Sure, wha'ever."

James and Anne shrugged in resignation.


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's note: Special thanks to LoveRobin for being a test-reader and helping 'tweek' the results. Any errors are entirely my fault. Hope y'all enjoy this. Good news: Chapter four should be up soon, bringing in another character and having a lot more action in it. These first three chapters have been prologue, establishing Josh as a character; Chapter four is where this story really becomes a cross over. Also: If you have read my other stories, you know I've done F/F slash romances. I'm planning to stear the story that way (no promises... I've had characters act in ways I initially didn't expect before I started writing a scene). How interested/squicked would y'all be about that?  
_

Joss Possible stared at the television screen. Her face was blank, as emotionless as... well, a robot.

James Possible winced. Watching the movie, seeing an actor pretending to be what she secretly was, could not have been easily. He would have been much more comfortable if she had been showing a reaction... any reaction. Finally, the movie ending credits started to roll. "Boys, to bed," he ordered.

"Aww, Dad...," Jim and Tim complained in stereo.

"You heard your father," said Anne, standing up. Maintaining a united frons against the twins was essential. "Come on, to bed."

"What about Joss?" asked Jim. "Doesn't she have to go to bed?"

"She's a guest, the rules are different for her," said Anne. "Now, get on up to bed."

James waited as Jim and Tim went upstairs. Joss was still immobile, not saying anything, and just continuing to stare at the turned off screen. They stayed that way, silent, until Anne came back downstairs. "Joss?" she asked. When the girl still did not respond, Anne put out her hand to touch Joss's shoulder.

Joss jerked, blinking her eyes suddenly as if the room lights had suddenly brightened. "Sorry, what?"

"Are you ok, Joss?" asked Anne, concerned.

"Oh, sure," Joss smiled. "The movie didn't look that interesting, so I decided to try doing some memparsing instead of waiting for tonight."

Anne frowned. "I thought you had to be asleep to do that."

"No," said Joss. "It happens automatically when I sleep, but now that I know about it, I c'n trigger it voluntarily."

James shrugged. "What's memparsing? Something related to menopause? Slim didn't mention anything about that when we were working on Joss's battle gear."

Anne opened her mouth, then hesitated. "It's... kind of complicated to explain, without turning it into a neuroscience lecture."

"Let's let dad explain," suggested Joss. She went to where she had placed the DVDs her father had left for her, and quickly picked out the one she wanted. It only took her a minute to switch out the _'Not Quite Human Too' _disc for the one featuring Slim.

The scientist turned cowboy appeared on the television screen, standing in front of a marker board. "Joss, you may wonder why you sleep. Like humans, sleep is critical for your continued physical and mental well being." he started. "First, while you are dormant, the nanoprobes inside your system are better able to maintain and repair internal systems. If you ever become extensively damaged, you will even 'black out' to allow the nanoprobes to repair critical damage to your system. Secondly, by 'sleeping', you dream... basically, you use the computing power normally devoted to moving your body to be able to run complex simulations. Much like a human 'lucid dreamer', once you are aware of the fact that these are simulations, you will have the ability to control what happens in these 'dreams'.

"The third reason, however, is why sleep for you is critical." Producing a marker from his pocket, Slim drew two ovals on the board, labeling one 'Short' and the other 'Long', "Jus' like humans, you have two sorts of memory: Short 'n' Long term. Everything you experience while awake goes into short term memory." He used the marker to point at the oval marked short, then begin shading it in as he spoke. "However, if everything stayed there, you would eventually run into storage limits and find your memories beginning to overwrite one another." The top oval was now completely filled in. "As you are, we estimate you can keep functioning for up to forty hours without experiencing any problems, and could probably keep running several days in a row without serious problems. However, it's much safer if you periodically do what we call _'memparsing'."  
_  
Slim used the marker in his right hand to draw an arrow connecting the two ovals, and then picked up an eraser in his left hand, "Part of your upgrading is constantly expanding long term memory storage capacity, both physically, and with improved compression routines. However, even so there are limits to how much memory it is possible to fit into a humanoid torso. To save space, your long term memories are stored using a wide variety of priority based and self-adapting compression algorithms."

Slim used the eraser to clear out the top oval, leaving it empty, as he filled in the bottom half of the lower one. "Running these conversion algorithms requires most of your system capacity, so normally memparsing only occurs while you sleep. However, you can go into memory parsing mode while awake, to make sure you don't lose important events. While doing so, you will be dormant, appearing to organic humans as simply having 'droned off'. Before entering memory parsing, make sure you are in a safe location; you will have diminished ability to monitor and respond to outside stimuli while memory parsing."

Joss hit the pause button, freezing Slim's image on the screen.

"Well," James commented thoughtfully, "That was both informative and interesting. And good to know."

"Joss, please let us know before you do that during the day," said Anne. "We were worried something was wrong."

"Considering my dad has been kidnapped and it turns out I'm not human like I thought I was, everything is perfectly fine," said Joss.

"Just because you're a synthetic humanoid being doesn't mean you don't have moments of teen angst." Anne added pointedly. "In fact, if there was ever a combination of things to cause someone angst, I imagine these are as bad as anything I ever went through in my day."

"Well, you can finish memparsing in bed, young lady," said James. "I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning."

* * *

To call Bebes individuals would be stretching the term. While each Bebe could operate autonomously, each unit was motivated by a desire for shared perfection. They constantly shared information and memories. If one started to mentally differ from her sisters, the differing Bebe would self-terminate when it realized it was drifting away from 'perfection'. Thus, when Bebes communicated, it was not talking in the sense humans would.

If they did talk as humans did, then the following scene might have taken place:

Bebe #16: "We have discovered something interesting in Dr. Slim Possible's memories."  
Bebe #12: "What have you discovered?"

Bebe #16: "It was in the memories of his construction of the proto-Bebe designate 'Joss'."  
Bebe #12: "Her existance was unexpected, but advantageous. Many of her design concepts could be incorporated into our perfection."  
Bebe #16: "The neural net incorporates advances not in our current knowledge. Unfortunately, Dr. Possible lacks the information we would need to reconstruct the chip."  
Bebe #12: "Who would have that information?"  
Bebe #16: "Most of the hardware for her neural net was created by Miles Dyson. He has ceased function. Any records he left would be kept by his employer, Cyberdyne."  
Bebe #12: "More information is required. More information will be acquired."  
Bebe #16: "Agreed."

* * *

Joss opened her eyes. It was the eleven PM, and her memparsing was complete. Rather then remaining asleep... she much preferred to think of it as 'sleep' rather than 'being dormant', the truth about her nature was still somewhat surreal to her... Joss decided to go watch another of the DVDs her father had recorded for her.

It only took her a few minutes to select the tutorial on the Smart Rope and slide it into the player. She turned the volume down as low as she could and still clearly make out the words. On the screen, Slim Possible appeared, holding what Joss was sure was the same Smart Rope as currently residing in her left thigh storage compartment.

"The Smart Rope is a former prototype developed as a multi-function tool to help rescue workers," said Slim. "The project was scrapped when it was decided that the cost to produce the Smart Rope, even with mass production, was prohibitive and outweighed just using ordinary tools. There are several basic modes. The first is the default form where..."

Joss listened intently, her face lit from the glow of the set, as she watched the Smart Rope put through its paces. About halfway through she paused the DVD player so she could take out the Smart Rope and hold it in her hands. Somehow, seeing her father hold the same thing she was holding now her feel better... made her feel more human.

* * *

"Breakfast time!"

Joss opened her eyes. After watching the DVD, she had gone back upstairs to sleep. She was still holding the Smart Rope, cradling it like a teddy bear. Feeling a little bit silly, she prepared to put it away. This time, instead of just coiling it up manually, she sent a mental command. The rope moved as if alive, wrapping itself up neatly so she could store it away.

Going downstairs, she could hear Jim and Tim chattering away. It was Saturday, and Anne had promised to take the boys out shopping. While neither of the twins had much interest in clothes shopping, Anne had also promised to take them to the local Planet Pizza, an event the boys were heartily looking forward to.

"Do you want to come too?" Anne asked.

Joss considered, then shook her head. "Nah... I'd rather stay here and practice some."

"Ok...," said Anne.

"I'll be staying here too, doing some paperwork," said James. "Um, what sort of practice?"

"Oh... rope practice," said Joss.

* * *

Joss held the Smart Rope out, examining it after several hours of practice. What appeared to be a metallic rope was actually a complex collection of synthetic fibers and electronics. The Smart Rope was basically a robot in rope form, although nowhere near as smart as Joss. While she had the intelligence of a smart human, the Smart Rope was more on the level of a not-too-bright dog. By experimenting, she had discovered that she could make the Smart Rope do things not mentioned in the DVD. While holding the Smart Rope, she could mentally link with it and program it to do basic tasks. It had been fascinating, watching the Smart Rope crawl caterpillar like and slither like a snake through the back yard of the Possible household.

The Smart Rope had three basic forms. In 'default' or storage mode, it was fifteen foot long, capable of moving on its own or being used like ordinary rope. In extended mode the fibers stretched out to make it twenty five feet long, but the only movement it could make was to contract down. In condensed form it was only five foot and considerably thicker. At that length it was once again unable to move, but this time because it was so stiff; it could be used as a lever, quarterstaff, or any other appropriately sized ridged tool.

"Joss?" James called.

"What's up?" asked Joss. She had skipped lunch so she could keep working with the Smart Rope; she wondered if James was going to try to convince her to eat something. It seemed a bit silly. While she needed food, she could function fine on a diet a supermodel would have considered insufficient.

"There's something on the news. The Bebes struck again," he reported, turning up the television.

"Police have confirmed that at seven AM today, the Silicon Valley headquarters of Cyberdyne R+D division were broken into, by the rogue androids known as the Bebes. The Resistance, an online group which has previously been Cyberdyne's most vocal critics, denied any prior knowledge of the Bebe's actions and, in fact, are encouraging the police to track down the Bebes. This would seem to be a major change for The Resistance, which is believed to be linked with the escaped mental patient Sarah Conners..."

James muted the announcer's voice.

"So, it's not just my father the Bebes are going after," said Joss.

"Know that they know about you, they're probably trying to find out all they can," said James.

"Good," said Joss. "Maybe we c'n figure out where they're going to strike next."

* * *

The Bebes were not happy. If they had the full emotional range humans had, they would have been swearing, cursing, and probably doing random property damage. Lacking the ability for such histrionics, they were just standing around, analyzing the information they had taken from the Cyberdyne facility. It was twenty four hours after the Cyberdyne assault, and they had reached some unpleasant conclusions.

The original chip and robot arm which had sparked Miles Dyson's research was gone, destroyed the same night that Miles himself had died. Most of his personal records had similarly been destroyed, except for back-up copies of his files which Cyberdyne had created without his knowledge. A replacement arm, near duplicate to the original, had been found. However, no replacement for the chip had been found.

Between the memories in Slim Possible's head and the information they had recovered from Cyberdyne, they could build a new copy of Joss's 'mind'. However, they had no way to know how to integrate such technology into their own systems.

The Bebes were facing what some humans would call a Catch 22 situation. If they were able to integrate the Cyberdyne-inspired technology, the robots would take a massive step forward in creativity and intuitive abilities. However, integrating the technology required creativity and intuition; two abilities they were currently lacking in.

Bebe #7: "Dr. Slim Possible is resisting us. Even if he cooperates, his abilities may be insufficient. After all, he required the assistance of at least two other people to create the Joss entity, and he seems to have believed her creation involved the class of probability fluctuations humans call 'Luck'."  
Bebe #4: "Additional humans will be required."

Bebe #9: "Additional humans mean additional risk to the Bebes. Optimal stratagem requires the fewest number of humans to be detained to accomplish the objective."

Bebe #4: "There is one human who has a demonstrated ability to reverse engineer alien technology. The Cyberdyne artifacts may qualify for that classification."  
Bebe #9: "Our next goal is defined, then. To locate this human. Who is he?"  
Bebe #4: "He is known as Isaac Sumdac."

* * *

"Dad! I'm bored!" Sari Sumdac complained. She had returned home, after watching most of her friends leave to go back to their home. Since her friends were the alien robots know as Autobots, that meant they had returned to Cybertron, their robotic homeworld. She could still talk to them over a vid-link, but it was not the same as when she had lived with them. This being Monday just made it worse; she was aware if she'd been a normal teenager, she'd be at school with human friends. Hanging out with her dad at work just wasn't the same.

"I am sorry, Sari," said Dr. Sumdac. "But I am having a sudden visitor soon. He insisted he speak with me. Why don't you go downstairs and play with Bumblebee."

"A sudden visitor?" said Sari, forgetting her teen angst. "Who?"

"Dr. James Possible," said Dr. Sumdac. "He is the head of the Middleton Space Program and said it was of a matter of grave importance."

"Maybe I'll stick around and listen in," she declared.

"You can stay in the office," said Isaac. "But you must be polite. And..."

"Yeah, yeah... no showing off any special skills while they're here." Sari grumbled. "What, you think I'd go full out in front of people I don't even know?"

"It is a matter of concern for me," said Isaac. "If I had handled your past better in my past, then some of the most recent unpleasantness would have been much less unpleasant."


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's note: Once again, thanks to LoveRobin for proofreading my work. Any mistakes are, as always, my own. Spoiler alert for Transformers Animated, but you can find the same information in Sari Sumdac's Wikipedia entry. If anyone is wondering: Yes, it's possible (no pun intended) that this story will evolve into a slash between Joss and Sari. This will probably be the longest chapter in the story; I didn't want to break the action before Sari had met Joss in both forms. In Transformers Animated time line, most of the Autobots have left Earth, but Bumblebee stayed along with Sari.  
_

"Hello, Mr. Sumdac, thank you for meeting me," Dr. James Possible stuck his hand out, reaching down to shake the shorter man's hand.

"It is my pleasure. I am glad always to be meeting with another colleague in the field of robotics," said Mr. Sumdac. "Please, call me Isaac."

"Isaac then. Please, call me James."

"This then is your famous daughter?"

"No, this is my niece, Joss," said James. "It's her father I came to talk to you about."

"Really? I had assumed your call was a problem you were having with robots," said Mr. Sumdac. "Oh, and please excuse my manners. This is my daughter."

Sari smiled, reaching out to shake hands, "Hi Joss! I'm Sari."

"Sorry about what?" asked Joss.

The girl sighed. "That's my name. Sari. Ess-Aye-Arr-Eye... Sari."

"Oh, ok. I guess it's m'turn t'be sorry," Joss gave her an apologetic smile. The two sized each other up a moment. "This is going t'sound really weird... But have we met somewhere before? There's something about you that's familiar."

"Not that I recall... and I have a very good memory," said Sari. "But I was going to ask you the same question. Where do you live?"

"Montana, but I'm visiting with kin in Colorado. This is my first time visiting Detroit," said Joss. "Do you travel a lot?"

"Sometimes," said Sari. "But never to Montana or Colorado."

"Girls, can we get to the purpose of this meeting?" James interjected. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Sumdac is a busy man and I need to warn him about this."

"Sure, Uncle James," Joss nodded.

"Warn? Oh my," Sumdac said, as he sat down at his desk. "This does indeed sound ominous."

"Isaac, how much do you know about Bebes?" asked James, sitting down in front of the desk. Sari and Joss sat down in chairs of their own. Both young women kept sneaking glances at each other, trying to figure out why a complete stranger would seem familiar.

"I assume you are not talking about the toy rifles," said Sumdac. "I have heard a little about them... created by a Dr. Drakken, yes?"

"Yes," James nodded. "However, he lost control of them. A week ago, they kidnapped my brother. He had recently published an article about cybertonic technology involving his work with robotic horses. If they scanned his memories... which I believe they probably have... they would have discovered some experimental work he had been involved in, a little over ten years ago."

"I see," Sumdac nodded along. "And you are telling me about this why?"

"The work involved a deceased employee of Cyberdyne and incorporated a wide range of technologies, including the transducers your company had just released," said James. "Two days ago, the Bebes raided a Cyberdyne research facility. We believe you or your company might be next."

"Why my dad?" asked Sari.

"Sari! Do not be rude!" said Mr. Sumdac.

"It's a fair question," said James. "The... project... included some extremely advanced materials that Cyberdyne had been working with, at the time. The only other company I know of that has or had any... equally advanced pieces of technology is Sumdac Systems."

Mr. Sumdac sighed. The original origin of 'cybertronic' technology was a closely guarded secret, but Mr. Sumdac had no doubt that James at least suspected that the technology was based on extraterrestrial origins. After all, James was one of the recognized world experts in cybertonics.

"It is true that I had access in the past to... certain advanced technology," Mr. Sumdac's English had improved, now that he was being much more careful about what he was saying. "But I no longer have access to those artifacts. It was reclaimed by... shall we say... the original owners."

"I am aware of that," said James. "Of course, you still have the information you acquired while studying Mega... studying the artifacts."

"You ARE well informed," Sumdac's eyes widened slightly. "What do you advise me to do?"

"Well, for starters... ."

Whatever James was going to say was cut short as alarms started to blare out.

"Gotta go!" Sari and Joss spoke the words in unison, both standing up. Before Sumdac or James could stop either, they dashed out of the office.

"Where are you going?" James called after them, even as the office door slammed shut. Metal shutters slid down, covering the office windows in a layer of armor.

Once out of the office, Joss hesitated. So far, all of the building she had seen was the lobby, one elevator, and the walk to Mr. Sumdac's office. She had no idea where the Bebes might be or where the best place to stop them was.

Ignoring Joss, Sari headed toward the elevators, pulling out a T-shaped key. She used it to activate one of the elevators, which normally would have been locked down as part of the security procedure. As soon as the elevator doors started opening, she slid inside and mashed down the button for the underground parking level where she had left Bumblebee.

Joss looked about. The elevator doors had closed, so now there was no one around to see her. Bending down, she yanked her jeans down to her knees, vowing to find a less embarrassing way of accessing her weapons. Her thigh holsters deployed, allowing her to grab the Smart Rope and Auto-Six. She pulled her pants back up as the now empty holsters folded back into place. If the Bebes were coming, both she and James were in danger. She felt her combat mode automatically triggering; her body expanding out as nanoprobes flowed from her skin, covering her clothes and body. Within seconds she appeared to be an adult woman, dressed in a Mylar jumpsuit and helmet. With a thought, the Smart Rope wrapped itself around her waist like a belt, then she held the auto-six with a two-handed grip.

* * *

The elevator opened at the garage level. A woman in yellow armor stepped out. A helmet with two triangular antennas sticking out of the top and two sapphire blue oval 'eyes' appeared to cover the wearer's face. Two metallic gray wings, appearing more decorative then functional, extended from her back, between her shoulder blades. More bits of metallic gray and sapphire blue decorated her outfit. She walked toward a small yellow car.

The car seemed to leap up into the air, pieces of the itself twisting around. When it landed, it had transformed into a yellow, ten foot tall humanoid robot. "Hey, Sari... what's up?" asked Bumblebee. "A lot of noise going on."

"There's a security alert, and we think it might be the Bebes," said Sari. "Let's go." The girl, herself transformed, led the way toward a cargo elevator, this one large enough for Bumblebee to use.

* * *

The six Bebes ignored the alarms, racing up through the Sumdac Towers building. They were quite used to human security systems, and knew speed was their greatest advantage. Most human security systems were aimed at defeating humans, and no unaugmented human could match the speed of a Bebe unit.

However, most human security systems had not been designed with the possibility of a Decepticon attack in mind. The robotic women could not truly be surprised in the human sense, yet they could still be caught unawares. Such as now. The first indication they had that this would not be a usual mission was in the stairwell, when heavy metal panels slid into place with superhuman speed, blocking their way.

The first Bebe charged forward, slamming her fists into the barrier. Even at full speed, it barely made a faint dent in the heavy metal. Not to be deterred, the blue robot knelt and began hammering away, until she had made two noticeable dents near the bottom. By the time she was done, her sister units had caught up.

Two Bebes on the left and two on the right reached out, sliding their hands into the bulges made by the first. The four robots straightened, forcing the panel up. The first Bebe slipped under the panel, reaccelerating. One by one, the others followed.

There was another heavy metal panel that tried to stop them, but this time the Bebes were ready, having upgraded their speed requirements. Two of them raced forward, grabbing the panel before it could fully descend. The other four did not even slow their forward charge.

Next was when a high powered automated taser weapon deployed from the ceiling. The stairwell, being too small for most Decepticons, lacked the heavy artillery the larger areas featured. The Bebes, insulated to be safe against standard tasers, ignored the weapon. This turned out to be a mistake as the weapon system fired at the first robot. On an ordinary Bebe unit, the darts would not even have scratched their armored 'skin'. This weapon, detecting that it was not aimed at humans, juiced the darts with considerably more power. Two metal points stabbed into the Bebe's chest, fired with enough force the robot was actually forced to stop. Before it could assess the development, a massive electrical charge surged through the wires, still connecting the darts to the taser weapon system. In the fraction of a second before the wires burned themselves into ash, enough voltage was pumped through the Bebe to fry its electronics. The weapon turrent then turned and fired at a second intruder.

This time, the Bebes knowing the nature of the defense they faced, reassessing weapon system's threat, dodged aside. The darts struck concrete. Before it could fire a third time, one of the Bebes grabbed and literally ripped the turrent from its ceiling moorings.

Two of more of the blue robots charged forward. The Bebe which had ripped the taser apart waited for the two units which had stopped the panel to catch up. All of them ignored the remains of the Bebe robot which had been fried by the taser.

The two Bebes now in the lead charged out of the staircase, onto the appropriate floor. They stopped, seeing Joss, her firearm at the ready.

"You are the proto-Bebe unit," announced one of the Bebes.

"Threat analysis: Medium," proclaimed another. "Annoyance factor: Substantial"

"The name is Joss," the girl growled. "and Ah'm NOT one of you." She fired, aiming for the right eye of the first Bebe which had spoken. The unit ducked to the side, managing to avoid the bullet.

Joss swore. She had forgotten how fast the things were. With literally inhuman speed she dropped her aiming point and triple-tapped. These bullets were aimed at the robot's torso, the first two a tad wide to the left and right, the last straight up the middle.

In the tight confines, the Bebe had virtually zero room or reaction time to completely dodge the shots as they herded it into the middle third projectile's path. The shot slammed into the Bebe's side, spinning her around. The untargeted Bebe leapt forward without hesitation.

The major problem with the speed the Bebes could attain was they were still bound by the laws of physics. So long as the robots remained in contact with a firm surface, like the ground, floor, or walls, they were capable of adjusting directions at speed... even at times appearing to defy gravity while running up walls... and thus increasing the difficulty of tracking, much less hitting, them.

However, the moment they left the confines of such solidity, such as in a leap, they became just another projectile. Incredibly fast ones to be sure, but confined by physics and gravity; limited in readjusting trajectories until once again in contact with something solid.

A bit more used to how fast her targets were, Joss fell backwards, firing again with a trip-tap. This clip was armor piercing bullets, and this time the three bullets hit exactly where she aimed. The thing smacked into and collapsed on top of Joss, a large triangular hole in its chest.

This had given the side-shot Bebe time to recover. Ignoring the hole in its side it also charged at the fallen Joss. Hampered by the body of the robot on top of her, Joss fired in the wounded Bebe's direction, unable to aim as accurately as she had before. One bullet missed completely, burying itself in a wall. Two more slugs managed to do enough damage to 'kill' it, but the Bebe survived long enough to kick the gun from Joss's hand.

The girl struggled to get free as three more Bebes stepped out of the stairway. Joss looked around desperately for her Auto Six.

"Restrain the proto-Bebe," one of the trio said. "We will collect the target objective."

"You had better not be talking about Uncle James!" Joss swore. She reached down to the Smart Rope around her waist.

Before she could use it, one of the Bebes had gotten its arms around her and was holding tight, arms pinned to her sides. The other two Bebes darted past, attacking the door of Sumdac's office. It reverberated.

Helpless, Joss struggled in the first Bebe's grip. In desperation, she brought her right knee up hard against the unit's crotch. The Bebe just looked down at Joss, the robotic face showing an expression of sardonic amusement.

"Yeah, I didn't think that would work," grumbled Joss as the wooden veneered office door was finally pulled open.

"Bebes must be perfect," intoned the unit holding her. "You could become a part of the Bebe collective."

"Forget it!" snapped Joss. "I'm perfec'ly fine wit' the way I am!"

"That is a lie," said the Bebe. "Interesting. The capacity to lie is one of the possible attribute upgrades the Bebes are contemplating developing. We would not have expected that capacity in you."

"You don't know me!" Joss snapped.

"Your verbal output is close enough to human that we can analyze it for key stress indicators," explained the restraining robot. "You are flawed... too human to be a Bebe, yet not a real human."

"What are you doing to my father?" demanded Joss, ignoring the fact she had been called flawed.

"The being known as 'Slim' is currently being kept in stasis. He is unconscious to prevent further attempts to escape or deceive the Bebes. His knowledge may prove of further use to the Bebes. You call him father?"

"Yes I do!" Joss declared. "You got a problem with that?".

"No," said the Bebe, tilting its head to the side as it stared at Joss. "It is just that he calls you daughter, while being aware of your synthetic origin. We find this information... disquieting. Confusing. He seems unaware of the logical conflict of that statement. Something our own... 'father', never succumbed to. Although flawed himself, Dr Drakken understood the distance which should stand between creator and created."

"Family isn't always about logic," said Joss.

"Which is what makes it imperfect," concluded the blue automaton.

* * *

"Oh dear!" Issac Sumdac stared at a computer monitor. "The Bebes are already in the building and entering a stairwell."

"Mr. Sumdac, Issac, do you have some private escape route or saferoom? One VERY close to here?" demanded Dr. Possible.

"Surely my security can stop them," said Mr. Sumdac.

"Maybe, but probably not," said Dr. Possible. "I've had the chance to analyze them since early in their inception. There are fast. VERY fast. Very determined. And able to work together like hive insects. Plus, they've had time to improve themselves since then. I don't think your security system or my niece will be able to stop them."

"Your niece?" said Mr. Sumdac. "What can she do about them?"

"I...," James hesitated. As far as he was concerned, Joss's origins was a secret that belonged to Joss and Slim. He didn't want to reveal it without Joss's cosent. "Never mind. Just that if you have some way out of this office that avoids the stairwell, I advise we use it, now."

"I do have something," Mr. Sumdac typed a command string into his desk computer, then stood up. A panel on one of the office walls slid back, revealing a secret passage. "This leads to my private lab. From there, I can initiate additional security lock downs," the portly scientist explained.

"Good," said James. "Let's go."

Both men started down the passage, when Sumdac stopped. "Wait, I left my computer on," he cried, hurrying back to his desk.

James turned. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

"If my computer is still on, they can open the passage to my lab," the other explained.

"We have to hurry!" James said. "The Bebes could be right outside!"

As if an response to James' statement, both men heard the sound of someone pulling on the armored office door.

Sumdac looked at the door. Already, he could see it beginning to buckle. He would not have time to get back into the passage and close the door before the Bebes were inside the office. "I am sorry. You were correct," he said, pressing a button on the computer keyboard. The wall panel slid back in place, trapping James inside the secret passage.

Two Bebes charged into the office room and moved toward the man. "Issac Sumdac, we have come for you," announced one of the female shaped robots.

He held up his hands. "Have you done anything to harm my daughter?" he asked.

"Our only business here is with you," it intoned.

_Interesting,_ the scientist observed, _Programming still responds to verbal inquiries. This bears further investigation._

"You will come with us now," said the second Bebe.

"Yes," agreed Sumdac. "This is not my first time being captured by hostile robots, by the way."

Joss watched, helpless, as two Bebes carried Sumdac out of the office. Only once the three had entered the stairwell did the one restraining her release her and follow after them.

Joss ran into the office, looking around franticly. "Uncle James? Uncle James?"

"I'm in here!" came a muffled response.

Joss turned, locating where her uncle's voice was coming from. Fortunately, the panel was designed to be camouflage instead of armor. With a single kick, she opened up a hole in the wall.

"The Bebes have Sumdac," said Joss, as the thin scientist started to crawl through the hole.

"Wait...," said James, recognizing the determined tone from his daughter, but it was too late. Joss had already turned and dashed from the office, to the stairwell exit.

The Bebes were already halfway down the stairwell. Although hampered by carrying Sumdac, there was a limit to carrying a human at super high speeds without injury, and so they had to modify their momentum. Even so they were still going faster than Joss could follow. There was no way she could catch up... if she took the stairs.

Joss may have temporarily lost her Auto Six sidearm, but she still had the Smart Rope. She grabbed it, the rope uncoiling from around her waist, and jumped onto the railing. It was a lo-o-o-ong way down, but Joss did not for an instant hesitate before dropping down the tight space between the winding steps. "Geronimo!"

The Bebe's turned to look but did not slow as the girl fell past. Only a few stories up from the ground floor and the VERY hard ground, Joss tossed one end of the Smart Rope at the stair railing. The end wrapped tightly around the railing, tying itself into a knot. Joss grabbed the other end with both hands, clinging tightly.

What followed would have been impossible using any sort of ordinary rope or line. If an organic human had tried it, he or she would have been lucky to just end up with dislocated shoulders. The Smart Rope snapped taunt and then began to stretch. Unlike a bungee cord, the metallic fibers were able to control the rate it slowed Joss's plummet. By the time it had reached its maximum length, her speed had plunged from suicidal down to a speed where she could survive impact with the ground... even if an organic human would have probably have broken their legs.

At that point the Smart Rope untied itself. Joss fell another seven feet, landing catlike on all fours. She stood, the Smart Rope gathering itself into an easy coil. She was just in time... the Bebes, still carrying Sumdac, were only a few steps away from reaching the bottom.

Joss moved to stand between them and the ground level exit door, the Smart Rope contracting into its quarter staff configuration. "Drop the scientist!" Joss ordered.

Once again, if Bebes communicated among themselves in human words, the conversation would have sounded something like this:

Bebe #12: "We have already suffered fifty percent casualty rate on this mission."  
Bebe #17: "That rate will likely increase to sixty-six-point-six repeating percent if we engage the Joss entity again."  
Bebe #19: "If we release the scientist, the sacrifices of Bebe units #6, #14, and #23 will have been for nothing."  
Bebe #12: "If we engage the Joss unit together, it will involve time. Even if we defeat the Joss unit without losing additional Bebes, security may have enough time to keep us from taking the Sumdac entity to our base."  
Bebe #19: "One Bebe unit could engage the Joss unit while the other two take the Sumdac Entity to our base. The odds of the Bebe unit surviving the engagement is less then seven percent, even assuming eventual victory over the Joss unit. Once again, engaging the Joss unit would give security time to respond, forcing the remaining Bebe unit to either self-destruct or face capture."  
Bebe #17: "An alternative must be found."

Joss growled as, from her point of view, the robots held still for a couple seconds. "I said, drop the scientist!"

One of the Bebes stepped forward, leaving Sumdac held prisoner by the other two units. "We have reached a decision," the thing announced.

"Well? What is it?" demanded Joss.

The blue unit turned to face a wall, suddenly rushing toward it. Before Joss could fully comprehend what it was doing, the Bebe lowered its head and smashed head-first, creating a new opening from the stairwell.

The two other Bebes, still carrying Sumdac, followed their sister through the newly created egress.

"That's cheating!" Joss yelled.

* * *

A few minutes earlier:

"Why does a cargo elevator even HAVE elevator muzak?" complained Sari, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Whoah...," said Bumblebee, holding one hand up to the side of his head, to partially block out the music. "I'm hearing something on the security radio... the Bebes are already in your dad's office."

"Crud!" swore Sari. "We won't have time to get up there to him... we'll just have to head back downstairs and cut off their exit." She pulled out her key, aiming it at the elevator control panel.

"Um, Sari, what are you doing?" Bumblebee asked nervously.

"This," she replied.

The cargo elevator stopped going up and, instead, did the closest thing it could to free fall.

"SARI!" Bumblebee cried in fear, bracing himself against the sides of the elevator.

"Relax, I know what I'm doing," she said. The elevator slowed to a sudden stop, the doors opening at the ground floor. "Come on, let's go... they'll probably take the exit of the side closest to the stairwell."

They had just gotten into position when they saw one of the Bebes come crashing through a new opening in the wall. "Hey, you! Stop!" Sari ordered.

The Bebe ignored her, turning and running for the road. She was followed by two more Bebes with her father being carried between them...

"Hey, that's my dad!" Sari said. She charged forward. Magnarollers, the Cybertronian equivalent of rollerblades, extended from her feet. Even with them, she realized the Bebes were too fast for her to catch on her own.

"Quick!" said Bumblebee. He knelt, converting back into his car form. He popped open the driver side door, "Get in!"

"Don't mind if I do!" Joss said, from where she had just come out of the building following the Bebes. Tugging open the passenger door, she plopped down in the seat, just as Sari sat behind the steering wheel.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Sari demanded, her helmet coming apart and storing itself away so that she could glare at Joss, just before gasping as the other girl's own battle helmet melted, reabsorbed into the nanoprobe suit she was wearing.

"They've got my father!" said Joss.

"They've got MY father!" snapped Sari.

"And if you two want to get them BOTH back, shut up and hold on!" ordered a voice from the direction of the car stereo. The car doors slammed shut as Bumblebee raced forward. Seatbelts extended, automatically cinching arround both women.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: Again, thanks to LoveRobin for reviewing material, any mistakes are all my fault.

Bumblebee raced after the Bebes. Inside, Joss and Sari braced themselves as best they could as he swerved to dodge a car. In vehicle mode, the Autobot could drive as fast as the robots could run encumbered with their prisoner. Plus, he had intimate knowledge of the area around Sumdac Towers. However, the Bebe's were smaller and nimbler; even carrying Mr. Sumdac they could squeeze into gaps in traffic which Bumblebee was too large to fit through.

After being jostled a couple of times, the girls glanced at each other as Bumblebee took a turn so fast that human-made tires would have left skid marks. "Helmets!" they said, in unison. Nanoprobes flowed up Joss' face and the back of her head, forming a solid helmet. The pieces of Sari's helmet, disguised as bits of her body armor, moved into position to cover her head.

Bebe #17 glanced back. The other two units did not bother, knowing their sister unit would tell them what they needed to know. "We are still being pursued," Number 17 announced.

"I can't hit them if we can't catch up with them," complained Sari. The energy blades on her forearms pulsed with her anger.

"I lost my shootin' iron upstairs, don't you got anything that actually fires?" asked Joss.

"Hold on, I'm going to try something," Bumblebee said over the car speakers. He transformed, changing back to a giant humanoid figure. Joss eeped as she found herself dangling in mid air. Before she could hit ground, Bumblebee managed to scoop the two girls with his left arm. His right extended, hand morphed into a cone-shaped weapon. He fired a blast of energy at one of the blue robots.

Bebe #12 fell, the electrical overload temporarily paralyzing her as her internal systems fought to compensate. Bebe #17 and #19 did not stop. Instead, they continued running along, carrying their portly captive. Behind them, Unit #12 began struggling upright, her body twitching as her CPU sought to bypass the damaged circuitry.

"You ain't getting away!" Joss swore. She leaped out of Bumblebee's grasp, throwing her Smart Rope at the Bebe. The metallic lariat came to life as it touched the blue woman-shaped robot, wrapping tight around arms and legs. Taking advantage of the Bebe's partially paralyzed state, it soon had it immobilized in a hog tie, with arms and legs tight behind its back.

"We got to get my dad!" Sari screamed. Bumblebee took aim, but the last two Bebes had started weaving back and forth, making it impossible for him to get off a clear shot without risking hurting Sumdac.

"Roll out!" the Autobot announced, transforming back into car form with Sari inside. He drove off as Joss approached the helpless robot.

"Bebe cannot allow herself to be captured," it announced.

"Look like you don't have much choice," Joss said, cautiously.

"You are correct," Bebe #12 said. "Bebes will be victorious."

The blue female-form robot began to jerk again, spastically. At first, Joss thought she was trying to break free of the Smart Rope. However when smoke began pouring out of its ears, Joss realized the truth. She rushed forward as the now burned out unit's head collapsed to the ground.

"DAMN IT!" the redhead swore, kicking the now senseless piece of metal.

-line break-

"Hurry!" said Sari. "They're almost out of the city!"

"No sweat!" said Bumblebee. "Once we're out of all this traffic, I'm sure I can catch them on the open road."

"Once we're out of the city, they don't have to stay on the road!" pointed out the girl.

Sure enough, the Bebes had just reached the edge of the city. Without any pause to consider direction, they charged off the side of the road, Mr. Sumdac still held between them.

Despite the yellow Autobot's best efforts, he was unable to keep up as the robots hit rough ground, steadily opening the lead between them and eventually vanishing from sight.

"SLAG IT!" said Sari, slamming a fist into the dashboard.

"Watch it!" said Bumblebee. "That hurt."

"I'm sorry," she said contritely. "But... I lost my dad once already."

"We'll get him back," said Bumblebee, confidently. "Um... what do we do now?"

"Go pick up that Joss girl," Sari declared, deactivating her headgear. "She's got some explaining to do."

Joss was walking back to the Sumdac Towers, where she had left her uncle, when she heard a horn beep. She turned to see the yellow car next to him, the passenger side window rolled down.

"Need a lift?" Sari asked.

"Sure," said Joss. She held up the decapitated head of Bebe #12. "I was hoping we could get a heads up on where they're takin' yore dad." Bumblebee stopped and Joss climbed in, tossing the head into the back seat.

"So...," said Sari. "You're more then meets the eye also?"

"Yup," the other admitted. "How about you? Cyborg? Smart armor?"

"I'm part Cybertronian," said Sari. "I'm like Bumblebee, except where he turns into a car, I turn into a human."

Joss tilted her head. "What about your dad? If he can transform, why did he go with the Bebes?"

"He's fully human," said Sari. "He found my protoform and touched it, and it grew into me."

"Oh, so when did you find out?"

"About two years ago," admitted Sari. "It was a big shock, especially since my dad was missing at the time. How about you?"

"Android, and I found out about a week ago when MY dad got kidnapped," Joss explained. "We should see about forming a 'My dad lied to me about being human' support club later. Now, we need t'go find my uncle."

"So, your cousin Kim...," started Sari. "I've seen a lot about her..."

"Human," said Joss. "At least as far as I know. Come t'think about it, her being the same as me would answer a lot. Still, it's her friend Ron who's the real hero, in my 'pinion."

-line break-

"Unca' James?"

"I'm in here!" James' voice carried. He had convinced the security patrol to help him drag the four destroyed Bebes into Sumdac's lab, where he was now trying to discover what he could from the bodies.

"We got another one for you," Joss tossed the head onto the lab table, next to one James had open.

The rocket scientist looked at his niece, then Sari, then back. "It, ah, appears you two may have a lot in common."

"Yeah, starting with the fact that we're both missing our dads to the Bebes," growled the redhead. "I'm going to go find muh gun."

Sari nodded to the security guards next to James, "It's ok, guys... we got it." The guards nodded and headed back downstairs.

James turned to look at Sari, studying her suit closely. "Based on classified reports I've read, I'm going to guess... Cybertronian, and not the Terran-variety cybertronic. Correct?"

"Yes," she confirmed with a nod, hopping up on the lab table, looking at where James had several cables running from one Bebe body to a computer station. "What are you doing?"

"I'm hoping that I can analyze their memories to figure out where the Bebes are operating from. The problem is all of the Bebes have taken a lot of damage, so I'm having to jury rig and work around the damaged circuitry. I should be able to at least get started downloading in about twenty minutes," said James, then glanced at his watch. "Actually, we may have another problem in a few minutes."

"Why, what happens in the next few minutes?" Sari asked.

Before he could answer, he was interrupted by Joss's shriek of surprise, coming from out in the hallway.

Sari rushed out of the office. "What's wrong? Are the Bebes back?" she asked, then spotted the other girl.

The brownish-red-haired girl was crouched down, arms wrapped around her torso. There was no sign of the liquid metal armor she had been wearing earlier.

"What happened?" Sari asked.

"Joss's battle armor is composed of nanoprobes," explained James. "Which can only function for a certain period of time before they have to recharge, or fall apart."

Sari transformed, turning back into a human looking good wearing a yellow dress. Her shoes and socks had been destroyed in the transformation, but the rest of her outfit was unharmed. "What about the clothes she was wearing earlier?"

"The nanoprobes ate 'em," growled Joss. "Now could you two stop staring and get me something to wear that AIN'T going to disolve on me?"

"We're about the same size...," said Sari. "I can loan you a dress."

Joss looked as if she'd bitten into a lemon. "A dress?" she said, both her farm girl and tom-boy sensibilities clearly offended. "You can't rope cattle in a dress!"

"Well, last time I checked, there weren't any cattle in the city," said Sari. "So it's the dress or nothing."

"Clearly y'didn't see how ah hog-tied tha' Bebe...," Joss muttered under her breath

James cleared his throat, facing away from his now naked niece. "I'm going to see if I can access anything from the Bebe's head, as it appears less damaged than the others," he said. "Why don't you take Joss somewhere where she can change."

Fortunately, Sari's room was on the same level as her father's lab and office; as a result, she was able to lead Joss there without being seen by anyone else. As soon as Sari opened the bedroom door, the other girl hurried over to the bed, pulled off the top sheet and wrapping it about her body.

"You know, the only people who can see you right now are you and me," pointed out Sari. "Don't you think it's kind of silly to be a robot AND body conscious?"

"Leave me 'lone, Ah only foun' out ah ain't human 'bout a week ago!" growled Joss. "I suppose you go traipsing around naked all the time?"

"Well, I'm lucky enough that whatever I'm wearing tends to transform when I do," said Sari. "It's just... you know, ironic."

Sari opened up her closet, choosing a dress and underwear for Joss. The bottom of the closet was crammed full of boots; her dad buying them in bulk ever since discovering her transformation sequence ignored whatever she had on hands and feet. "Here, do you need a training bra?" asked Sari.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you are kind of... um, flat," Sari gestured.

"Hey, you're not exactly Miss Fanservice, y'self," grumbled Joss. She pulled on the offered cream yellow panties, then slid the dress over her head. The material clung to her body, long sleeved with a flowing skirt which reached down to her knees. "Don't you have anything that's not yellow?"

"Hey, some of us LIKE yellow!"

Joss jerked in surprise. "Bumblebee?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out."

Joss was able to spot a cellphone like device from where Bumblebee's voice was coming from. "Can you, um, see us?"

"No, but I can listen in as long as Sari doesn't forget to keep her commlink charged or turns it off."

"Come on," said Sari, interrupting. "Let's go see how your uncle is doing with those Bebes."

All four... well, four and a quarter... Bebes were laid out now in Mr. Sumdac's lab, with a mass of multicolored cables connecting bits of them with Sundac's main computer. A large LCD monitor the size of a garage door was showing rows and rows of numbers, letters, and symbols.

"Any idea on where these Bebes came from or where they're taking my dad?" Sari asked.

"Not yet," admitted James. He was staring at the monitor while gesturing absently at the electronic gibberish. "The Bebes use a custom operating system and data encryption scheme. It could take years for me to crack it. Fortunately, I was able to call an expert who should be here in a few hours. With your permission, we'll work here."

"Sure, if it means getting my dad back. What do you need?"


End file.
